OK here the story.

Recently I needed a card reader for SONY MS, and the CHEAPEST I found in a shop from a well known chain costed 30 dollar (not dollars currency),

Today, I see exactly the same reader from China for $1.

30x price increase!

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It works but just somehow, I have to push the card against the socket each time.

 

I am confused. How is a dollar not a dollar? How is a $1 item a 30x price increase over a $30 price. That is a decrease in my book.

Any one else confused?

And you bought a $1 card reader and you are complaining it does not work quite right? Did you ever hear the saying "You get what you pay for" ?

 

It costs 30 dollar ( in dollar currency) in the shop.
I bought it.
I saw it online for $1.

It is exactly the same reader.

 

I am confused. How is a dollar not a dollar?

Could be Hong Kong dollars.

And you bought a $1 card reader and you are complaining it does not work quite right? Did you ever hear the saying "You get what you pay for" ?

Yep. same as all the crap I buy on ebay. I never buy anything unless it is cheap enough that I won't care much if it's junk.

 

OK here the story.

Recently I needed a card reader for SONY MS, and the CHEAPEST I found in a shop from a well known chain costed 30 dollar (not dollars currency),

Today, I see exactly the same reader from China for $1.

I doubt it is the same reader for $1.

 

I doubt it is the same reader for $1.

It is. Same transparent covering, same shape, same cable (style and color).

I can't really write the store name or this gets political, so let's say, it is 30 dollars (US).

A) 30x price increase
B) Does not work right

 

I hear that.

At first, last year; my plans were to buy all my parts/components from American dealers.

No way, after I found out from small items were so overly priced in this Country. Especially LEDs and their power supplies.

Everything I buy now, comes from China.

Now, if I was making items for sale to the public, I may think differently.

Zero recourse from Chinese corporations. However, they are using the same manufacturing standards, (ISO9000); as us.

Not all comply:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9000

 

BTW, I have already gone through that phony, "USA, USA, USA", schtick.

We are not that exceptional.

 

Prices don't usually reflect what something is worth to make - more about how much people are prepared to pay for it.

If you find a card reader to be worth the $30, then that's what it is worth.

I remember being told in statistics that some larger companies will employ statisticians to figure out the max price to charge, before too many people will deem it too expensive.

 

I would assume that selling price is determined by simple math.

(price x volume) - total cost = net profit

You want to maximize profit.

That is why a store may sell 1 lb of bacon for $3.99 and then offer 2 lb for $5.99.
You really didn't mean to buy an extra pound but the store just squeezed an extra $2 out of your pocket.
Their cost increased only marginally but their profit went up by 50%.

 

I would assume that selling price is determined by simple math.

(price x volume) - total cost = net profit

You want to maximize profit.

That is why a store may sell 1 lb of bacon for $3.99 and then offer 2 lb for $5.99.
You really didn't mean to buy an extra pound but the store just squeezed an extra $2 out of your pocket.
Their cost increased only marginally but their profit went up by 50%.

Some value chains are just way more in efficient than others. Electronic distributors that stock millions of parts - some that will never sell, must charge way more than an eBay store from china that only sells resistors made in the factory across the street. Especially if they get them from the dumpster (only thrown away because the painted stripes are not perfect or leads were cut too short).

Logistics costs usually prevent buyers from going to many different specialty manufacturers instead of using distributors. However, China is not charging a fair price on international postage so the receiving country postage is making up some of the loss.

 

Put it that way- China has outnumbered us.

they sell small orders at a loss, and still make a profit, because it helps them to rotate stocks and keep factories going.

The information they sell junk is an urban myth. I never had ANY trouble with chinese components or gadgets.

You would wonder HOW cheap the components really are if you tap the right source. It can be 3x as cheap as some established and well known sellers.

It is of course unfair (towards US European sellers) to offer free shipping and basically, do some kind of price dumping with that.

It is good for the buyer...

the age where you buy a single chip in a retail shop seems to be over...

One example: Ordered a component 100pcs "sample quantity", $2 each (goes for $6 and more here in Europe).

+shipping
+duty and import charges

1000pcs is just 50 cents each.

 

BTW, I have already gone through that phony, "USA, USA, USA", schtick.

We are not that exceptional.

And I spent 20 years going through the Pacific Rim schtick and they are certainly not exceptional.

The point is that China has very low standards of manufacture in some cases and sometimes makes inferior products which look like the real thing. Some of the stuff they make is fine. I buy Chinese goods all the time from Ni-cad batteries to LED flashlights to almost anything you care to name.

The difference is that the importer has to take ownership of policing the maker to see the stuff is not junk and not made by a sweat shop.

You wouldn't believe some of the things we saw as for making of electronics. Makers here like Intel take their "reference design" and award the build to the lowest bidder... who is the lowest bidder because they ignore the specs and cheap out the design. Even Apple got burned building there.

http://www.chinalaborwatch.org/news/new-248.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/connieg...-scrutinized-after-foxconn-pegatron-reviewed/

The US is far from perfect but at least they have some legal safeguards in place to see you get what you pay for.

 

Put it that way- China has outnumbered us.

OK. What does that prove?

I am older than you. I remember when I started working in the 70's, Germany was the best economic powerhouse. We were supposed to learn from them and copy their business practices. Later, Japan was the economic genius that we were supposed to emulate. Now it's China.

Notice a pattern?

 

It is. Same transparent covering, same shape, same cable (style and color).

I can't really write the store name or this gets political, so let's say, it is 30 dollars (US).

A) 30x price increase
B) Does not work right

Your argument makes absolutely no sense:

On one hand, you are claiming the card readers are "exactly the same".

If that is true, the quality should be the same. Why would one work and the other not? It should be that the quaity would be the same regardless of the retail outlet who sells it.

If they are the same, then your complaint boils down to: one retailer is charging more than another and you are mad because you bought the same item from the retailer with the higher price.

Whose fault is that? The maker? The retailer? Were you forced to buy it there?

If you are claiming the Chinese seller is selling a better card reader, that disproves your original statement that they are exactly the same.

 

Your argument makes absolutely no sense:

On one hand, you are claiming the card readers are "exactly the same".

If that is true, the quality should be the same. Why would one work and the other not? It should be that the quaity would be the same regardless of the retail outlet who sells it.

If they are the same, then your complaint boils down to: one retailer is charging more than another and you are mad because you bought the same item from the retailer with the higher price.

Whose fault is that? The maker? The retailer? Were you forced to buy it there?

If you are claiming the Chinese seller is selling a better card reader, that disproves your original statement that they are exactly the same.

My theory is they shipped them faulty stuff becausse they dont like them. I needed a card reader the same day.

Not just expensive, also does not work right.

 

Notice a pattern?

Yes. American businesses suffer from inertia and hubris. They think the workers are a liability, not an asset. They refuse to change things just because the people making the widgets tell them how to do it better. After all, the wage slaves don't have college degrees, so they couldn't possibly have anything to offer. They think they are the best and crow about it like a rooster at sunrise...until they find out some other country just stole their customers.

 

Akio Morita's wonderful invention (the tape recorder).

Think a world without DJs, record labels, music clubs, CDs in shops, music in supermarkets, stars and celebrities, television every day.

Essentially 95% of all that content is exchangeable, disposeable, often rubbish in the first instance.

the people who produce it don't originally work, often, they don't do a thing at all.

OK he is not to blame as he did not totally just invent it on his own. But SONY was one of the pioneers who marketed affordable tape recorders.

Initially, the first batches were sold to universities, and people soon became eager to make use of them.

Today, we don't depend on tape recorders so much anymore, but that is one of the origins of today's techno culture, with all the aspects we experience today such as outsourcing and shift of values.

 

Yes. American businesses suffer from inertia and hubris. They think the workers are a liability, not an asset. They refuse to change things just because the people making the widgets tell them how to do it better. After all, the wage slaves don't have college degrees, so they couldn't possibly have anything to offer. They think they are the best and crow about it like a rooster at sunrise...until they find out some other country just stole their customers.

I worked in American business since 1976. I am well aware of their limitations. I also know they kick the hell out of just about any other country when the competition is conducted on a level playing field.... unlike many other countries whose governments pump massive amounts of subsidies into business, most of our industries are driven by greed and the wealth it creates (not government money). And, unlike most countries, that wealth goes to the entrepeneurs and not the government so they are driven to kill themselves to create cutting edge products.

Nobody thinks the US is perfect. But those of us who lived it get tired of being told how great the other countries are when reality is their business models are crap. japan was supposed to be great, and then their economy imploded and they are dead now. China is supposed to be great, their economy is also going to implode. Their massive population explosion has built a time bomb into their economy: they implemented "one child" limits which means that as this generation ages, a masssive number of aging populace will be standing on the backs of a small number of work force.

China is what it is: a country that is cresting the wave and it's all downhill from here.

watch.

 

I worked in American business since 1976. I am well aware of their limitations. I also know they kick the hell out of just about any other country when the competition is conducted on a level playing field.... unlike many other countries whose governments pump massive amounts of subsidies into business, most of our industries are driven by greed and the wealth it creates (not government money). And, unlike most countries, that wealth goes to the entrepeneurs and not the government so they are driven to kill themselves to create cutting edge products.

Nobody thinks the US is perfect. But those of us who lived it get tired of being told how great the other countries are when reality is their business models are crap. japan was supposed to be great, and then their economy imploded and they are dead now. China is supposed to be great, their economy is also going to implode. Their massive population explosion has built a time bomb into their economy: they implemented "one child" limits which means that as this generation ages, a masssive number of aging populace will be standing on the backs of a small number of work force.

China is what it is: a country that is cresting the wave and it's all downhill from here.

watch.

Some anti-JP sentiment as usual not a long way to go until encountering it just statistically when posting on public forums.

I have been there. What you write is fictional.

One difference between US and Japan I can tell you.

USA exists for only a few hundred years and is a tribal mix.
Japan exists for thousands of years and is 90% to 95% japanese- with some added korean and chinese aspects.

In Japan all modern standards of domestic life can be encountered- indeed it is far more developed than the country where I live.

It is true starting in the late 1980 and early 1990s, production shifted to China. Bye Bye Made in Japan VCRs and Nintendos.

But it is not that dramatic, before of that, a lot of silicon already was produced all over south east Asia.

In Japan itself almost everything (public structures) is either made by Mitsubishi or Hitachi.

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China economy imploding sure, one my contacts tells me they do have the equivalent for eBay which they use a lot for online shopping.